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Beware of Gift Card Tax Scams

There’s never an off-season when it comes to scammers and thieves who want to trick people to scam them out of money, steal their personal information, or talk them into engaging in questionable behavior with their taxes. While scam attempts typically peak during tax season, taxpayers need to remain vigilant all year long.

For example, there are many reports of taxpayers being asked to pay a fake tax bill through the purchase of gift cards. While gift cards are a popular and convenient gift for all occasions, they are also a tool that scammers use to steal money from people.

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Tax Tips Image: Neatly stacked pennies in an ascending line. Russo CPA Tax Tips 2023

Seasonal Workers and the Healthcare Law

Businesses often need to hire workers on a seasonal or part-time basis. For example, some businesses may need seasonal help for holidays, harvest seasons, commercial fishing, or sporting events. Whether you are getting paid or paying someone else, questions often arise over whether these seasonal workers affect employers with regard to the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

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Tips for Taxpayers: Backup Withholding

Taxpayers receiving certain types of income typically reported on certain Forms 1099 and W-2G may need to have backup withholding deducted from these payments. Here are three tips to help taxpayers understand backup withholding:

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Six Tips for Starting Your Own Business

Starting your own business can be an exciting prospect, but there is more to it than simply writing a business plan. Also, if you expect to have employees, there are a variety of federal and state forms and applications that you need to complete to get your business up and running. That’s where a tax professional can help. With this in mind, let’s take a look at what you need to know before you start a new business.

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Health Coverage Terms Employers Should Know

Under the Affordable Care Act, certain employers – known as applicable large employers – are subject to the employer shared responsibility provisions. You might be thinking about these topics as you make plans about 2021 health coverage for your employees.

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Tax Treatment of Virtual Currency Transactions

Whether you’ve invested in Bitcoin and sold it at a profit or loss or received it for services performed, you’ll need to report it on your tax return. Here’s what you should know:

Background

Prior to 2014, there was no IRS guidance and many people did not understand that selling virtual currency was a reportable transaction. They may have found themselves with a hefty tax bill – money they were hard-pressed to come up with at tax time. Others were unaware that they needed to report their transactions at all or failed to do so because it seemed too complicated.

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Final Regulations for 100 Percent Bonus Depreciation

Final regulations have been issued by the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service implementing the 100% additional first-year depreciation deduction that allows businesses to write off the cost of most depreciable business assets in the year they are placed in service by the business.

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Avoid Refund Delays by Renewing Expiring ITINs Now

People who are not eligible for a Social Security number must use individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITINs) if they have tax filing or payment obligations under U.S. law. Periodically and under certain circumstances, these ITINs expire and should be renewed as soon as possible to avoid unnecessary delays related to tax refunds next year.

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Choosing a Retirement Destination: Tax Considerations

With health care, housing, food, and transportation costs increasing every year, many retirees on fixed incomes wonder how they can stretch their dollars even further. One solution is to move to another state where income taxes are lower than the one in which they currently reside.

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